Thursday, June 4, 2009

Like Everyone Else, Phillies Apparently Worried About Phillies Fans


A friend of mine and I are going to a Phillies game later in the year. I ordered my tickets online and, rather than pay the inexplicable $3 charge to download them directly, I decided to let the Phillies foot the bill and wait for snail mail to deliver them to my door. The tickets arrived a couple days ago. With the two tickets was a receipt, a Phillies wallet-size schedule, and a laminated 3x5 card entitled "Guest Conduct" which shows a remarkable mistrust of their target clientele.

The card covers Guest Conduct broadly, then gets specific with Prohibited Items, on the reverse side Smoking, Distribution Of Materials, and Banner Policy.*

I'm going to go through this in depth because, 1) the other option is cleaning poop off of my son's butt, and 2) I think it's warranted.

The card says, "Guests must refrain from conduct that is inconsistent with the fun, family atmosphere that should prevail at Citizens Bank Park." I love the conditional verb "should." Its as if there is an audible sigh following the sentence. I'm sure the promotional department wishes they could write, "In a perfect world, one where Phillies fans are replaced with well-behaved orangutans, we wouldn't even have to conceive of, let alone print, this card."

Then there is a list of things which presumably are not part of that fanciful family atmosphere. Most are relatively obvious (interfering with a ball in play, entering the playing field, throwing objects onto the playing field, ect.). Still, a couple struck me as odd. I will comment in italics.

+Interfering with other guests' ability to enjoy the game - I understand interfering with other guests' enjoyment of the game, my enjoyment of Phillies games is always interfered with, but how do you interfere with other guests' ability to enjoy the game? There must be some sort of mind trick that, as a non-native Philadelphian, I can't understand. BMFS?

Then, listed under "prohibited items":

+Cans and Glass Bottles - OK, no aluminum cans or glass bottles, but what about aluminum bottles, which are sold at the park?

+Alcohol & Open Containers - Again, both are sold at the park. I understand that it's a market thing and they make lots of money selling alcohol to patrons so they don't want you bringing in your own beer when they can sell you one for $8, but isn't the fact that they're selling it mean that it isn't prohibited?

+Weapons - Holy shit! You mean I can't bring my glock to the Phils game? Fuck it then, I ain't going!

I suppose this card isn't really that big a deal. I'm sure they send out similar cards telling people they aren't allowed to bring a bunch of liquor, get drunk, and shoot stuff with Angels tickets and Mariners tickets too.
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*I assumed that this last item does not refer to Philadelphia Eagles President Joe Banner. (Ba-Da-BOOM?)

6 comments:

BMFS said...

Daaahh, eat a bag of dicks. The Red Sox have a warning like that on their tickets too, except on the list of prohibited items, it says "coloreds."

I hope you get hit in the noggin with a slice of pizza.

Stephanie said...
This post has been removed by the author.
mattymatty said...

I wrote "mmm... bag of dicks..." but it was under my wife's account, and that just won't do. So, ahem, take two:

mmm... bag of dicks...

Anonymous said...

The Red Cox post the list on the score boards throughout the game!

Snizza said...

Wait! How can "coloreds" be baneed from the stadium if they sell them at the game?

Ho!

Louise said...

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http://www.ticketsinventory.com/mlb/